It has become evident to many Seventh-day Adventist Christians that the SDA Church administrators have overstepped the authority granted them by the church body when making various decisions and statements — which are counter to biblical and Spirit of Prophecy guidance and the church manual.
These issues are not being corrected by those in positions of power. In fact, they are fighting those who call for correction (see above video).
To correct such issues, the agenda of the next GC Session should address these individuals assuming authority to make proclamations for the church body. Some of these proclamations insinuate theological beliefs which have not been endorsed by a GC Session or they are controversial. We should rescind all previously published statements made on behalf of the denomination which have not been approved in a General Conference Session and discontinue all associations (United Nations, WHO etc.) which are not in harmony with the Bible, SOP, or our fundamental beliefs.
A New Way of Making Statements
If the GC Session delegates determine the rescinding of statements and termination of associations are appropriate, there should be a system put in place which would facilitate issuing statements and guide our decisions for joining associations for the denomination—which are too urgent to postpone until the subsequent GC Session.
In such an occasion, there could be a church business meeting of each division, union, and conference to be convened in a given time period. At this time, an announcement would be made and a brief time period provided for members to submit opinions and concerns.
In order to facilitate the local church being educated in the subject matter necessary to make informed decisions concerning the issue, there would be presentations of the issues of concern via systems such as the denomination's internet presence.
This information process would be the information gathered in the comment period. In order to keep the volume of information manageable for the local church members, there would be two panels whose function would be to filter out spurious noise and condense the information appropriately. One panel would would be responsible for the pro faction, the other panel would be responsible for managing the against faction. Both panels would have the opportunity to critique the other panel’s results. The panels would be balanced with both denominational employees and laity.
After the announcement of requested action, a two week period for comment would be followed by a time period of perhaps two weeks for panel filtering operation.
The local churches would be provided two weeks for consideration and convening the business meeting. The process could then provide a decision in less than two months being based on the complete body of Christ instead of a select few.
In the event that leadership persons choose to make proclamations, such proclamations would be clearly identified as being their own personal beliefs and are not made on behalf of the denomination at large. This is a more fair way to affirm the membership of 22 million members, most of whom join the church based on biblical beliefs, and discover later a small cadre of people are making additional beliefs and statements for them, based on their own opinions and political expediency rather than principle. Classic bait & switch.
Similarly, if the administrative individual chooses to associate with an organization which the church body has not chosen to associate with, they are not to be construed as a representative of the denomination, and any costs of such associations are the responsibility of that individual.
Additionally, there should be a vehicle provided for General Conference Session agenda input for all individuals.
This process could have an internet accessible proposed agenda list into which any church member could post a possible agenda item which would be published. Any church member who agrees with the item being in the agenda could post an agreement vote for inclusion. If the popularity of a given item reaches a prescribed threshold, that item would automatically be added to the agenda without further action.
Each individual involved in the process would be required to identify themselves with contact information and church affiliation.
Let’s go where God lead us.
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Bill Hurlbutt: I’m an old fossil who was invited to church by my eventual wife and best friend at the ripe old age of 15. I originated in central New York and eventually landed in north east Alabama after living in Tennessee, Illinois, Michigan, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Washington and spent a lot of time in Alaska, Arkansas and Florida. I had the privilege of having J. G. Gallutia as an instructor in the College of Technology while earning a Batchelors at Andrews University so very many years ago. (Yep, I’m that old).
